A space for reflection and evaluation of my eLearning experiences

Menu

Edmodo and Facebook – how are they different?

Edmodo and Facebook both offer great options for collaboration and communication online. Let’s take a look at the different options for both.

Edmodo

Primarily communication and collaboration happens through posts to either individuals or groups on Edmodo. Posts can be linked to an email account and can be viewed via this medium with a link to log in and view and/ action the post on Edmodo. The conversations can include links to resources as well as text.

Edmodo also provides a backpack with file storage and a badge system. This offers further engagement for participants. Although participants can complete a profile for themselves it is far more private than Facebook. Edmodo is simplistic in it’s interface, settings and use. It acts as a specific place for learning to take place opposed to taking a learning environment and combining as part of a students personal and social online space.

Facebook

Facebook collaboration can happen via profiles, pages and groups. There is so much freedom and many options to customize the way in which you collaborate with learners via pages and groups. This helps to target a broader range of learning styles and adult learning principles. Communication can happen via chat or group/individual messages.

The benefit of using Facebook for communication and collaboration is it is a well known medium within society (not necessarily liked by all) and used by a lot of young learners. Facebook offers an out of hours option to connect with a group easily. Many learners are often on Facebook outside of the classroom/study time making them easily accessible via this medium. I realize I have made a lot of assumptions here however they are based on my own experiences.

Then there is the issue of privacy. So what are some of the differences between Edmodo and Facebook? Facebook privacy tends to be more open than Edmodo due to the fact most students use their personal accounts to engage with a class group, teacher’s profile or page. Therefore they are connecting a personal profile with other groups and friends that may not exactly be personal “friends”.

Let me know your thoughts and if there is anything else to add in this comparison post!